The political battle in the French-'Canadian province of Quebec is at Thelght, with the election only. few days off both parties asserti that they are on the: way to victory. The Aight is essentially a two-party cone, with the Liberals, under a new Teador—Premier Adelard Godbout—seeking to retain the power that they libeld at the last election by such slim majority. 'Their opponents, who) fare the equivalent of the Conserv: tive party, call themselves the Na-tonal Union group, and are led by' the fiery Mr, Duplessis, who attacked the former Liberal regime of Mr. /Taschereau in the provincial House with guch vigour that he was glad resign before the party was defeated.
The struggle has been one centring round the record of the former Liberal government, and the aspirations of the new National Union party, The present Liberal candidates are trying to forget about the revelations of dishonesty that were made in the closing days of the last House and occupy their time in promising a found and. prosperous era of good government, while de-laring that the National Union party are making all kinds of contradic tory statements that they will be unable to back up.
The Duplessis followers, on the other hand, are eager to capitalize fon the break-up of the last Liberal government in disgrace. They prom-Wee to carry out further investiga ons into the alleged corrupt provineial administration and to effect necessary economies. Their leader Joudly disclaims any intention to be disloyal to the British fag, although hho has frequently been accused of his. "He states that the term "Na-Nonat" in" the' name "of the party simply refers to the union of con-Micting interests to oust a poor government for the public welfare: he draws a parallel between his foliowers and the National Government in Great Britain. ment has been given out by the! Canadian companies, but st is pre dicted that they will fall in I While this increase is not all thi had been hoped for, it may be sufflelent to offset the rise in operat-Ing costs that the mills have been faced with. As yet there has been no move to ift the receivership from the large companies that are officlalbankrupt.
The Olymplo Squad Canada's Olympic track squad did not achieve any remarkable results, but it was by no means an entire Jdisappointment. "The nearest any entrant came to a win was Johnny] Learing, of Windsor, Ontario, who placed second in.' the 400-metre hurdles final. But the majority of the contestants were in the Mght to the Onish. For example, in the 200- metre event there were three Canadians in the twelve sem{-tinaists two of them were nosed out in the semi-finals, leaving Lee Orr to run. hhis way to fifth place in the record-breaking final.
Tu the sprints it must be admitted that Howie MePhee, the bland Vancouver youth, was' somewhat of disappointment. "He had been expected to be a real contender in both the 100-metre and 200-metre events, and in neither did he make a place.
the other hand, in the 400-metre finals there were two Canadians—ouring and Frite—in Atth and sixth counted on. The veteran Phil Ea-/wards ran strong races to place third in the 800-metres and Afth in the 11500-metres which was no mean per-{formance when the calibre of the leaders in each is considered, The other disappointment on the team was "lazy" Sam Richardson, who ived up to his nickname to well and falled to make good either the broad jump or the hop, step and jump. In the other feld events Canada had little success, l-though Apps tied with ten others for sixth place In the pole vault.
While the prospects are difficult to estimate in the heat of the con~ flict, your correspondent is inclined to believe that the - National Union group wil carry the field by small majority. In Quebec Liberal ism is very strongly entrenched, and The Grand Cordon of the order Polonia Restituta, one of the highest Polish distinctions has been bestowed by the Polish Trade Minister, Mf. Roman, on his French colleague, M. Paul Bastid, who is now on an oficial visit in Warsaw.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.